Cream Cheese Chocolate Cookies

I have a fantastic cookie to share with you this week. It’s simple, not too sweet, not too rich and downright addictive. Frankly I am beginning to think anything Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito (of Baked Bakery fame) come up with is delicious and addictive. Goodness knows their cookbooks as a whole are!

Their latest cookbook, Baked Elements,which brought us this fantastic cookie, is separated into 10 sections–one for each of their favorite baking ingredients (flavors) to play with. What are those ingredients? Peanut butter; lemon and lime; caramel; booze; pumpkin; malted milk powder; cinnamon; cheese (sweet and savory); chocolate; and banana. Every section–as long as you like the ingredient–has recipes that are intriguing. It is true I will never touch anything in the banana section but Bono himself could offer me a banana and I would say no.

Pardon the brevity of this post. Sometimes life just takes over. Happy Halloween!

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Cream Cheese Chocolate Cookies

Closely adapted from Baked: Elements

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Cookies

Keyword: chocolate, cream cheese

Author: TheSpicedLife

Ingredients

• 4 oz cream cheese room temperature
• 8 oz (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cool to touch
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 T heavy cream
• 1 t vanilla
• 2 1/4 cups (290 g) AP flour
• 2 t baking soda
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/4 cup Dutched alkalized cocoa powder
• 3 oz bittersweet chocolate 60%-72%, melted and cooled
• 8 oz miniature chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Sift the cocoa powder into the bowl and then whisk it in. Set aside.
2. Using a stand or hand held mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese together until creamy and well blended. Add the sugars and beat on medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the bowl as needed, and add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.
3. Add the dry mixture to the butter-sugar-egg mixture and slowly mix until barely incorporated. Add the melted chocolate and gently mix until streaky. Add the chocolate chips and gently mix just until all ingredients are evenly incorporated. You do not want to overmix but you do want it completely mixed.
4. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes and up to overnight.

5. Minutes before baking, place the oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 F. Line 2 baking sheets with either parchment paper or silicone mats. Using a smaller cookie scoop, drop heaping tablespoons of rounded dough onto the baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes, rotating front to back and top to bottom halfway through. The cookies are done when they have set and are beginning to look dry on top.

6. Cool the cookies on their sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.